


A Tribute Piece

by PlayingChello



Series: Never a Rose [2]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: How Do I Tag, Levi gets his tattoo, M/M, Tattoos, a lot of foreshadowing, blowjob, cuz I sure don't know, for no good reason, um
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-13
Updated: 2015-01-13
Packaged: 2018-03-07 09:29:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3169850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlayingChello/pseuds/PlayingChello
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi finally gets his first tattoo</p><p>Takes place after chapter 9 of Never a Rose</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Tribute Piece

**Author's Note:**

> Ahhh, I meant to have this out this morning but it took a little longer than expected to finish so you get it tonight instead. This was originally going to be like super short which is why I had it as a oneshot in the first place rather than its own chapter in the story. Well, turns out it was plenty long enough to be a chapter, but I'd already committed myself so it's still just part of the series. SO, hope you all enjoy it, we've got some Ymir/Levi banter which was tons of fun to write plus other stuff. And smut. Because it's been a while.
> 
> Comments, kudos, etc. very very much appreciated.
> 
> I have a [tumblr](http://playingchello.tumblr.com).

“You look nervous,” Ymir says as she glances over from the light table.

I level a dark glare at her, “Fuck off.” She just raises an eyebrow and returns to her drawing.

I catch myself drumming my fingers against my leg and clasp my hands together to keep from showing how nervous I actually am. I’ve been watching people walk into this shop with ideas and out with works of art for a year now, but I’ve never once put myself under that needle. Today, that is going to change.

Eren comes out of a back room shaking the hand of a woman he just finished tattooing. She has a huge smile on her face and looks so happy. It’s strange, people looking so happy after being subjected to hours of being prodded repetitively with a needle. But then again, when the result is Eren’s beautiful artwork permanently engraved on your skin, I can see the allure.

The client leaves with a smile and waves to Ymir on her way out. I barely even notice Eren has approached until he’s standing right in front of me. “Hey, ready?”

“Not really,” I mumble.

I didn’t think Eren heard me, but when he sits down next to me and grabs my hand, it’s clear he did. “Levi, if you don’t want to do this or aren’t ready, then you shouldn’t.”

I heave a heavy sigh and look down at our hands, “It’s not that I don’t want to. I do, I really really do. It’s just new.”

He looks at me for a long moment and the most beautiful understanding smile graces his features. “It’s alright to say you’re scared or nervous, you know. But you shouldn’t worry too much. I’ve been doing this a long time.”

My eyes flick over to Ymir whose back is hunched over the light table and clearly trying very hard to look like she’s not listening to every word we’re saying. “Let’s do this.”

He grins and walks me into one of the back rooms, his fingers twined with mine. I sit down on the bench while he opens a cabinet and takes out a spray bottle. He sprays all of the counter space down with it and wipes it away. Then he goes to the little sink and washes his hands more thoroughly than even I do. As he continues moving around the room silently, doing his pre tattoo ritual, each action soothes me a little more. I’m aware that he needs to be clean when doing all of this, but I didn’t realise quite how much work he put into it. The ritual of it all and the thoroughness with which he completes it calms my fraying nerves until he turns to me with a large sheet of translucent paper covered in blue lines held out to me in black gloved hands.

“Shirt off.”

“You know, you’re usually a lot sexier when you want to get my clothes off,” I tease, reverting to poor humour to dispel my nerves, now back in full force.

“Very funny,” he snaps back while I stand and pull my shirt over my head. The way his eyes travel over my chest does not escape my notice. But then he shakes his head and he’s all business when he indicates for me to turn around. “Relax your arms at your sides.”

I do as instructed and feel him run a cotton swab over the entirety of my back. It’s cold and wet and smells strongly of disinfectant. He takes a fresh disposable razor and runs it over the skin to clear any hairs. Then the paper is pressed up against my back and peeled away after a few moments. I see him step back through the mirror in front of me and appraise his stencil.

“Okay, here,” he hands me a somewhat large hand mirror, “Take a look, make sure you like how it sits.” I stand and turn my back to the wall mirror, using the hand mirror to see the blue lines on my skin. I don’t really know what I’m looking for, it looks pretty much just like the drawing he’d given me on my birthday, but simplified and without colour. I flex my shoulderblades and marvel at how the wings seem to ruffle as the muscles move beneath them. Even as a stencil the drawing is so real.

“The orchid is a little off. Could you angle it down a bit more?”

Eren peers at the mirror over my shoulder, examining his lines. “Yeah, I see what you mean, turn around.” He picks up a marker and starts sketching directly onto my skin. It takes less than a minute before he turns me again so I can check. He’s only changed a few lines, but it makes all the difference. The lines look incredible and seeing it there reminds me why I decided to do this in the first place.

“It’s perfect.”

He grins widely at me and leans in for a quick peck before sending me to sit back onto the bench. He wheels his stool over and adjusts it then wheels his tray with his machine and ink over as well. He picks up his machine and rubs his thumb over a small spot at the lower right portion of my back, “Ready?”

Unable to get sound passed the nervous lump in my throat, I nod. The heel of his palm settles low on my back, “You need to tell me if you feel light headed or sick or anything. Talk to me.”

I clench my jaw and swallow hard, “Just do it.”

The pressure on my back lightens and I see him lean forward over me some. His voice is right in my ear, “I’m serious, Levi. I’m not going to have you passing out on me. I’m going over a lot of bones close to the surface. Parts of this will hurt a lot and this is your first piece. You have to tell me if something feels wrong.”

I almost say something flip again, almost complain about how there isn’t anything right about shoving a needle into my back over and over again. But I can see his face in the mirror, how serious he is. And I know he just cares, both about my well being and his art. “Yeah, I’ll tell you.”

“Good.” He returns to his previous position and his hand rests against my back again. The machine flicks on and the room is filled with it’s consistent buzzing. “I’m going to start with a small line, take a deep breath.”

I do as he says and the needle touches my back for a short line. The sensation is bizarre. It’s painful, to be sure, but it isn’t as bad as I thought it might be. Makes a little more sense to me now why people do this all the time. The needle digging into my skin is something akin to how I imagine it would be if a scalpel were dragged along my skin, only cutting into the very top layers.

“Levi? How’re you doing? You’re really quiet.”

“I’m fine.” He doesn’t stop his needle while we talk, just keeps going at his steady pace, then moves his hand away to wipe away excess ink and blood.

“Good. Still glad you did it?”

I don’t answer for a moment, just let myself experience the vibrations of the gun running along my skin. “Yeah.”

We fall into an easy silence, with only the sound of the buzzing tattoo machine and his awful music drifting in from the front between us. His hand follows his stencil carefully, moving constantly, only pausing to wipe ink away. Sometime he hits spots with the needle and it sends vibrations up my spine and through my skull, making it feel like the gun is vibrating in my brain. One time he hits a spot on my right just below my ribs that makes me shudder violently.

His hand moves back quickly, “Hey! Don’t move or I’ll mess up the lines.”

“Not my fault, asswipe. Involuntary response.”

“Advice for you, _hayatım_ , don’t insult the guy with the electric needle digging into your back. Anything could happen.” He returns to his work.

“Don’t fuck it up, Eren. I know where you sleep.”

He laughs heartily at my poor attempt at humour, “I’m terrified. Shaking in my boots. How’re you holding up?”

One minute he’s bantering and the next he’s so caring. “I’m good.”

“Alright, think you can stand another hour? Then we can take a break.”

“Yeah, I’ll live.”

We continue for an hour, just as he had said, until he flicks off the machine and wipes off the last of some ink. “Little break, walk around. There’s another hour or so of lines and I’d like to get the shading on the wings done if you can stand it. That way you only have to do one more session.”

I nod, and he opens the door for me. I walk out into the main shop. It’s pretty empty now. Ymir is perched on a stool with gloved hands holding a needle over a teenager’s ear. She glances over to me as I come out into the main room, “Hey, asshole. Wait a sec, I want to see.”

She focuses on the girl and punches the needle through two spots on her ear then puts a single bar across the top of her ear through both holes. She finishes up with the client, telling her how to care for the piercing, then sends her on her way. Then her attention is focused on me. “Alright, turn around.”

I roll my eyes but do as she says. She walks up closer to me and scrutinises the lines Eren has put down so far. A long moment of silence passes, “Are you gonna be done anytime soon or should I question your devotion to womankind?”

“I will poke you and it will hurt like hell.”

I turn back around, “You’d be on the floor in seconds.”

“I wouldn’t underestimate me if I were you.”

Before I get the chance to respond, the door opens behind me and both Ymir and I turn our attention to it. “No, get the fuck out. I’m not entertaining you while I’m in pain.”

“Leeeeviiii,” the long vowels of the most obnoxious human I have the misfortune of knowing sit poorly in my ears. Hanji bounds forward into the shop.

“Don’t touch me,” I manage to say and stop them with their hands up in a motion to throw them around me.

Their arms drop, defeated, “Fine, grumpy.”

“This is not news.”

They brighten once again, “Don’t I know it! So how’s it going, are you done already?”

I level a glare, “I’m walking around the shop without a shirt on, does it look like I’m done?”

“And you’re looking fabulous doing it, too. Ah, the lost opportunities. So let me see!”

With a sigh, I turn around and show them the unfinished lines. They whistle long and low, “That looks really nice. I want one!”

I turn back with an incredulous look, “Then get one, but quit pestering me.”

As if they hadn’t even heard me, they glance around, “Where’s the man of the hour?”

Before I can open my mouth, Ymir answers, “Still in the back, probably stretching his back after being bent over his for three hours.”

Hanji raises an eyebrow then makes some suggestive noises. I punch them none too softly. “Ow, I’m going to go say hi to him.” They move off toward the back, leaving Ymir and I standing alone. We stay in silence and I stretch the skin on my back a bit, feeling the raw skin pulling painfully.

Then Hanji and Eren come back from the back and Eren looks at me expectantly, “Ready to knock this out?”

Hanji waves and wanders out while I follow Eren back to the room we had set up in. “Sure you’re gonna be alright for another couple hours? I don’t have to do any shading today.”

“I’ll be fine, Eren. I’m not made of glass.”

He smiles, “I know. This is just a big piece for a first timer. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Well it’s too fucking late for that. Hurts like a bitch.”

“Heh, nature of the beast. It’s going to get worse, too.” He places a chaste kiss to my lips, “So let’s get to it then. Back on the bench.”

I situate myself on the bench comfortably and prepare myself for another long session of painful prodding with an electric needle. The moment the gun flicks on and fills the room with its buzzing, I feel myself tense. Eren must catch it, too, because next I know he’s running a gloved hand gently over my back, relaxing my muscles. I take a deep breath and then he starts again. The pain is considerably worse now, my back already raw from hours of being carved through. Fortunately, he doesn’t have to go over anything he’d already done yet so it isn’t too miserable.

Then he hits this spot on my spine about thirty minutes in near the top where some of the flowers are and my eyes cross and I get a burning sensation in my elbow. “Eren, stop a second.”

No sooner were the words out of my mouth than the hand is lifted off my back. “What’s wrong?”

I sit back a moment, straightening my spine and I rub my hand over my elbow. “My elbow feels like it’s on fire.”

He breathes out a heavy sigh of relief, “That’s pretty normal. Sometimes your nerves don’t react to pain the way we expect and create sensation far from the source of the pain. It’ll be alright.”

I give another couple rubs to my elbow before settling back into the chair. “Okay.”

Within moments he’s back on my with the tattoo gun. I sort of zone out for the rest of the line work, letting my mind wander somewhat to try and focus on something other than the pain of the needle. It’s only when Eren speaks up again that I come back to the room, “How’s it going? Line work’s done, can you handle shading?”

I flex my back briefly and wince at the way the raw skin pulls but nod, “Yeah, I can handle it.”

“Mk, I just need to change the needle then.” He rolls his stool around the room and goes about fiddling with the tattoo gun. I glance around the room a bit and notice he’s got the drawing he did for me propped up near where I’m sitting so he can see it while he works.

“So some people prefer shading to lines since there’s more needles and it spreads it out some, but others think it’s worse, so it just depends,” Eren says while he busies himself at the counter, “Also, it’ll probably suck anyway since i’ll be going near where I just did lines so you’ll be sensitive.”

“Great,” I deadpan, glaring at his back.

He spins around with a silly grin, “It’s gonna be great, and it’s just the wings so probably only about an hour.”

“You and Hanji need serious help.”

His grin widens, “You love me.”

“Sometimes I wonder why.”

He rolls back over to me and settles in behind me and I lean back into the bench. I’d gotten pretty accustomed to the needle by this point so I feel pretty prepared for the shading.

I am not prepared at all.

The moment he brings the needle back to my skin it’s like he’s reopening the lines he’d already done. The skin is raw and painful and there is no resting from it like before when he’d move to a new patch of skin that hadn’t been opened yet. Now he’s going over it with more needles and I grit my teeth just to keep from trying to shrink away from it. 

“How’s it feel?”

“Like you’re carving into my already raw skin with a burning razor blade.”

He chuckles, “Sounds about right. Still think you can sit for the shading?”

“I’m not made of glass,” I reaffirm.

He hums, but continues working. The next hour is very quiet, with Eren concentrating hard and me trying my hardest not to grimace too much. I catch his face in the mirror a few times and he looks so deeply engrossed, like he’s trying to get the shading down as fast as he can. I am somewhat able to see how he can get worked into a trance doing this as the buzzing from the gun pretty much does that for me.

With a flourish, Eren draws out his words, “Aaaaaand that’s a wrap!” the gun goes silent as he pulls away. “Stay there a sec.”

He wheels away briefly then comes back and sprays my whole back and wipes it up again, cleaning the skin. Then he sprays something else all over and it’s like the pain melts off to a bearable level again. “Here.” He hands me back the hand mirror from earlier. Once he stops rubbing soothingly at my skin I turn around and hold the mirror up so I can see. The lines are perfect and intricate and the shading in the wings makes them look like they’ll lift off my back.

“It’s beautiful.”

Of all the things I expect to see when my eyes flick over to Eren, his blushing, embarrassed face is not one of them. He looks almost as unsure as he did when he gave me the drawing. I lower the mirror, but before I can say anything more he speaks, “Turn around, I need to bandage it up.”

I set the mirror down on the nearby counter and walk up to him, “Eren.” He looks down at me, probably waiting for me to turn still. “I mean it, it’s beautiful. I can’t wait to finish it.” The tiniest twitch pulls at his lips so I lean up to capture him in a sweet kiss, “Thank you.”

This time he does smile a little, “I really need to bandage it up.” I hold his stare a little longer before relenting and turning back around. He wipes at the skin once more then tapes blue paper towels down over it. “I’ll help you take care of it, but-and I mean it, Levi-don’t over clean it. It’s just as bad as not cleaning it enough.”

“I’ll be hard pressed to do anything wrong with you there doting on me day in and day out.”

“Fine, clean your own damn tattoo,” he says as he turns me around to face him again after he peels the gloves off his hands.

“Yeah, because I believe you’d be able to keep yourself from helping.”

He opens his mouth to argue, then closes it and pouts, “Yeah, you’re right.” He hooks his fingers into my belt loops and pulls me into him, “Lucky you have me then.”

“Mmm, lucky indeed.” He bows down and kisses me.

\--

“How the fuck am I supposed to sleep like this?”

Eren glances up from where he’s sketching on the couch, “Sleep on your stomach.”

I glare at him a moment before grumbling to myself and going to the bathroom. A few hours after Eren finished the first session, he helped me wash the bandage he had made off of me and now it’s late and I’ve been walking around without my shirt just to avoid the fabric on the raw skin.

Moving hurts. The skin pulls and opens and it’s weeping disgustingly. I really just want to sit in the shower with the low pressure setting spraying blissfully cold water over me, but Eren won’t let me. Instead, I come in here and press my back up against the cool tiled walls and breathe a temporary sigh of relief.

“Hey.” Eren’s voice startles me slightly, but I just snap my eyes open and turn my head to him, still pressed against the wall. I hum in acknowledgement and let my eyes slide shut once more. “You okay?”

“Feels like the worst sunburn I’ve ever had in my life,” I comment, eyes remaining shut.

“Pretty much, yeah.” He steps closer to me and his breath ghosts over my hair. I can feel heat radiating off of his body, that’s how close he’s standing.

I crack one eye open, “Are you going to kiss me or do you just enjoy invading my personal space?”

He answers pretty much exactly as I expect him to. My lips part immediately to let him in. His fingers run up my ribs then he pulls. “Come to bed, I’ll put some oil on it for you.”

I lean forward gingerly and he leads the way to the bedroom. He sits me on the bed and goes to the living room for the little bottle of emu oil he gave me when he was explaining how to take care of it. It isn’t long before he’s back and climbing on the bed behind me. He settles in cross legged behind me and he squirts a small bit of the oil onto the middle of my back. The oil is cool and soothing on the painfully raw skin and Eren’s fingers press ever so gently into my muscles to work the oil into the skin.

A tiny sound escapes the back of my throat when he reaches the areas right over my shoulder blades, which not only burn but itch like a bitch. He continues silently, working slowly and gently until my entire back is covered and the oil is completely rubbed in. Once finished, his hands come around my waist to wrap loosely around me. Careful not to press against my back, he leans forward and rests his chin on my shoulder.

“You’re so pretty, Levi. You look goddamn beautiful with ink.”

It hadn’t taken Eren long to figure out how to get me going. Although, why he’s chosen _now_ for this, I don’t really understand. “Eren,” I say in a low warning tone.

He turns his head and kisses at my neck, “So fucking gorgeous. _Einwandfrei, güzel._ ”

My moan turns into a frustrated groan halfway through, “I can’t even move right now and my dick’s half hard, how is this supposed to work?”

Eren disappears from behind me and shifts until he’s sitting next to me, “Leave it to me.”

He sinks down to his knees in front of me and starts yanking at my sweatpants. He pulls them off without much help from me. I focus on staying as still as possible while he trails soft kisses up the inside of my thighs. He makes small pleased hums the whole time, taking care with each press of his lips. Whatever control I had managed to hold onto is fucking gone now and I’m just trying not to fall completely apart before he even touches me.

He glances up at looks at me from behind his lashes, “So pretty,” he whispers. I bite back a muffled groan. He leans forward to suck at the hollow of my hip, leaving a red mark that will certainly bruise, “Don’t hide your sounds from me, wanna hear.”

Then he ducks his head a little lower and mouths at my erection through my boxers. I squirm some and feel my back pull slightly. He smirks up at me as he makes eye contact again and I can’t look away. “Ngh, Eren…”

He pulls back slightly and hot air puffs over my now very wet boxers, “Something you want, Levi?”

“Fucking hell, you’re a goddamn tease.”

He pokes his tongue out between his teeth and his hands roam up over my thighs to the waistband of my boxers. “Just gotta tell me what you want.”

“Well, I want you to fuck me, but since that’s not going to happen, you should hurry up and suck me off.”

“Romantic,” he chastises.

“Yeah, well yo- mmmph,” my snarky remark is cut off when Eren yanks down my boxers and immediately has his mouth on me. He wastes no time in taking me in completely, all the way down to the base. He holds there and I’m amazed I don’t just come right then. Then he swallows and laves his tongue around anywhere he can reach and I’m panting and little keening moans are falling freely from my lips.

When he pulls back, he teases his tongue against me and leaves me shaking and _mewling_ for him. I watch his mouth stretch around me and it’s one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen. “You’re so- so godd-goddamn pretty, Eren.” My hand moves to his head and my fingers twist in his slightly overgrown hair and his eyes flutter shut. I can’t even smirk at the victory because he’s grazing his teeth over me and licking at my slit and it’s driving me _crazy_. When he sinks back down, my fingers tighten and push him down a little faster and he makes the most delicious moan around me and it sends vibrations through me and I know I won’t last very long like this.

He eagerly lets me set the pace, looking up at me with this pleading expression whenever I pull him off and push him back down. By the way he’s struggling to keep his eyes open and my complete inability to hold back my sounds, we’re both pretty lost in the act. Every so often, Eren hums around me, usually when I tighten my hand in his hair or direct him particularly forcefully. Each time I have to fight to remember to keep myself from moving too much and hurting myself.

I force the pace faster, to a desperate level, and bring my other hand to the back of his head when my rhythm stutters. I’m so close, I can feel the orgasm building in my gut. Eren takes back control of the pace as my fingers claw through his hair, using it to anchor myself in the moment.

Instead of warning him, I pull him onto me, all the way so he’s pressed up against my skin and his lips are stretched around the base of my cock. I hold him there, bent over him and just holding on for all it’s worth, and he moans around me and swallows and that ends me. I release hard into the back of his throat and I don’t let him go until I’m spent and barely holding myself up. When I finally do loosen my hold, he waits a beat before pulling off.

He licks his lips and stares up at me with this dopey, happy, _fucked out_ smile, “Wow.”

“Yeah, shit. I think I need to sleep for a year now.”

He pushes himself to standing on shaking legs and it’s now that I notice he’s moving a little strangely, “I’ll be right back.”

He turns to walk away, moving gingerly, “Eren.” He stops. “Did you come in your pants?”

I’m sure he thinks he was being subtle. He shrinks in on himself then looks sheepishly over his shoulder, “Maybe.”

“Put that shit in the laundry right fucking now. We can go get it done tomorrow.”

With a sigh, he strips his pants and underwear in one smooth movement, leaving me staring at his ass the the ink covering his lower half. If I hadn’t just had an incredible orgasm, I’m sure my dick would be back at attention right now. “I’m gonna clean up.”

He walks out. I sit there a few moments until I feel I can stand and find something I can wear to bed. I settle on just a pair of boxers, not bothering with pants again. By the time Eren comes back into the bedroom, I’m laying myself gingerly on the bed on my stomach, wincing at the way my back burns. He crawls in carefully next to me and runs his fingers soothingly over my back while he leans in to kiss me.

“I hope you brushed your teeth.”

He scoffs but nods anyway, not that I really mind _that_ much but I still prefer he does.

“I love you.”

He smiles and kisses me again, “Love you, too.”

\--

Fingers run down my spine before I can pull a shirt on while I’m trying to change. “Today’s the day.”

I turn around and manage to pull my shirt over my head before looking up at Eren, “Yeah, later. I have a store to run.”

He smiles proudly, “I’ll be waiting with bated breath.” He chuckles softly.

“Why are you even up? Usually you’re grumbling at me from under the covers still.”

“Gonna do the laundry and run over to Mika and Armin’s. I’ll be back for lunch if you want to grab something before we finish the tattoo.”

“Yeah, sure. Now are you going to move? I’m going to be late.”

He laughs at me, but moves aside, “How can you be late, it’s your store?”

I don’t even dignify that with a response, just lift up my middle finger over my shoulder as I walk out of the bedroom.

\--

The pain is nowhere near as intense initially as it was the first time. Eren said he would start with shading in what he hadn’t before, then take a break, then move to colour. The shading is easy to sit through, except for the time he spends on the spot on my spine that makes my nerves go haywire. That sucks a bit.

“Why do you have that bite mark tattooed on your left hand?”

It’s a question I’d had for a while, but never been overwhelmingly curious about so I just had never asked, but the way we’re angled lets me catch glimpses of it through the mirror and I’m bored.

His eyes glance briefly to his hand before returning to the skin he’s digging into. “It’s kind of a joke. I had a lot of anger issues when I was younger.”

“I never would have guessed.”

“Hey, asshole, do you want to hear the story?”

I smirk, “Continue.”

“Anyway, anger issues. Mom and dad didn’t really know what to do about it since I’d get in fights constantly. People used to pick on Armin a lot and if there’s anything I can’t fucking stand it’s when people pick on my friends. Anyway, mom suggested I find something to do instead of hitting people when I got mad. Kinda like the rubber band thing? So I’m not sure what possessed me to start biting the meat of my thumb, but that’s what I did. It helped. Kept my anger in check most of the time. So I guess the tattoo is a reminder but also me finding humour in myself.”

“You don’t do bite it anymore. That’s all you’ve got on that hand?” I phrase it as a question even though I already know the answer.

He turns his face away from the mirror and focuses harder on his work, “Yeah.” His voice is really quiet and I’m not really sure what it is about that hand that made him embarrassed all of a sudden, but I shrug it off.

A few hours later he’s cleaning my back off and letting me get up for a little break. I don’t even leave the room this time. Instead I just walk around the little room and watch him set up his colours. I love watching him work, he gets his distinctive determined frown while he focuses on doing whatever he’s doing. He probably doesn’t even realise I’m still in the the room.

“Hey bitches, oh good, you’re on break. Mikasa and Annie are here.”

Eren looks up at Ymir as if he’s coming out of a daze and it takes him a few seconds to process the information. “Wait, why didn’t you just send them back here? And what about Armin?”

“No idea about Armin, he’s not here. I didn’t send them back because I didn’t know how grumpy over there would react if you had a needle on him.”

I glare at her, “Oh, you do care.”

“I hate you.”

“The feeling is mutual.”

Eren sighs loudly, garnering both of our attentions, “Can you please send them in, then? I need to finish setting this up.”

“I’m not your errand girl, but I guess, just this once.”

He smirks at her, “Looks like Christa’s mellowing you out some afterall.” She walks away with her middle finger in the air. “Thank you!” he calls after her.

Moments later, Mikasa and Annie make their appearance in the little room.

“What are you guys doing here? I just saw you. And where’s Armin?”

Annie surprises me by fielding the questions, “Armin’s having dinner with my dad. He’s probably freaked out as fuck. We have news.”

Her tone is blank, straight, and unemotional. The way she looks exceedingly bored rivals anything I can come up with and if I didn’t know her as well as I do now, I’d think she didn’t care about the dinner going on between her boyfriend and father. Then I catch the way she’s holding her arm slightly unnaturally, displaying her hand a bit more obviously.

“Well shit,” I say.

Eren looks at me with a frown, “What? What did I miss?”

Mikasa fucking _glows_ and by the little quirk of her lips, Annie may as well be. Eren’s glancing between them with an increasingly distressed look until Annie extends her left arm with her wrist relaxed, showing off the beautiful ring with a shining ice-blue stone featured in the center.

A moment of intense and complete silence while Eren stares at the ring with his mouth open permeates the small space. “I’m going to fucking kill him. I just saw him! He didn’t even tell me!”

“Eren, calm down,” Mikasa chastises.

“How I’m supposed to calm down, Mika? This is great! Like really great, congratulations, Annie!” He looks like he wants to hug her but I’m glad that he favours his safety over the want to show his congratulations physically. I think she might kill him if he did. I’d like to finish my tattoo. And I guess I would be sort of upset if he died.

“Thank you,” she says as she blushes lightly and that, more than anything else, surprises me. “Turn around.”

It takes me a moment to realise she’s talking to me, but I comply silently. I can hear both Annie and Mikasa approach me as they examine the half-finished tattoo. They’re silent as they appraise Eren’s work on my skin.

“This is huge.”

Eren answers Mikasa while I turn back around, “Yup, and we’ve gotta get started on the colour if we want to finish sometime tonight. You staying at all?”

Mikasa shakes her head, “We need to be back before Armin otherwise he’ll probably think Annie walked out on him. He’s also probably not going to be happy we came to tell you before he did.”

Eren chuckles, “Probably. I’ll expect at least a text later.”

Without further fanfare, the girls leave and Eren directs me back onto the bench. I wish I could describe the next several hours, but I really can’t. The first couple hours or so are exactly like the shading from before, not terrible, not too intense, but still painful. After that, though, Eren’s needles are digging into my back in the same places over and over and over again. Every touch starts to hurt and I can feel my muscles tense every time the needle goes in and it just feels raw.

I must lose myself in the pain or the constancy of it, because I don’t register time passing until Eren is massaging his spray stuff into my back. I take a deep breath and it isn’t until now that I realise I’d been so tense. Gloved hands come up and rub at my shoulders and that definitely helps to relax me.

“You okay?” he murmurs into my ear as he bends over me.

“Hurts like a bitch.”

“Yeah, ready to look at it?”

I take another deep breath and nod. He backs away from me and hands me the hand mirror.

I turn my back to the standing mirror and lift up the hand mirror slowly. My heart is pounding in my chest as the art comes into view. I feel like I’ve had the wind knocked out of me. The first thing my eyes are drawn to is the ivy. The green is brilliant and beautiful and wraps through the wings so softly. The flowers draw the attention next, all perfectly rendered with magnificent colour, they look soft as if just from a spring rain and like I could reach out and touch them and I’d actually feel the velvet of the petals.

But the thing that brings tears to my eyes, threatening to spill over, are the butterflies. Somehow he managed to give these little insects without faces personality. It’s so clear that the black and blue one is hopelessly enamoured with the flowers around it and that the dual coloured one is equally enamoured with the other butterfly. He’s put so much of his soul into these two insects that are flitting around on my back.

I can’t speak. I have absolutely no words for this. And I know it’s making Eren nervous, just like it did when he gave me the drawing. But this is so much more than that. The drawing was incredible and captured all these little things so perfectly, but this is steps and _miles_ above that. The art looks so _real_ , so perfect.

I blindly set the mirror aside as I lock eyes with Eren. He’s never seen me cry before. More than a year together and I’ve never had reason to. And I’m trying so fucking hard to keep those tears from spilling over, but they’re brimming in my eyes and it’s a losing battle. And Eren looks terrified. I reach forward and grab his biceps painfully, pulling him into me. I throw my arms around him when he’s close enough and bury my face into his chest. He freezes a moment but then I feel his nose in my hair and his hands resting on my hips.

I’m not sure how long we stand like this, but we don’t separate until Christa walks in, startling us apart.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” she looks between us for a moment. “It’s late, Ymir and I are heading out. Do you need anything before we go?”

Eren struggles over his words and rubs surreptitiously at his eyes, “Ah, no, go, uh, go home. We’re done here anyway. I can close up.”

She looks between us again, more slowly this time, then smiles knowingly, “Alright. See you next week, boys. I expect to see that tattoo on Monday.”

Without another word she turns and walks out. Eren heaves a deep sigh then turns back to me, “So you like it?”

I glare at him, “Of course I fucking like it, you dick,” then I soften and reach forward to twine our fingers, “It’s perfect.”

The brilliant smile he gives me is worth all of the hours of pain several times over.

**Author's Note:**

> In case you missed it, the tattoo is based off of [this](http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2013/250/c/6/wings_flowers_back_piece_by_tattoosavage-d6lehej.png) image by [this](tattoosavage.deviantart.com/art/Wings-Flowers-Back-Piece-398744731) artist.
> 
> Questions, comments, just want to chat? Hit me up.


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